This Week’s Must-See Art Events: Back to School

No more indoor screenings; this week, we are very busy and important people. Chelsea’s bringing the mega-openings. Prolific emerging artists are everywhere, and Transfer Gallery is back in action. And all through fashion week, the PowerSuit Boutique is making PowerSuits for all of us.

Tue

47 Canal

Quality of Life

“Youth is the ultimate commodity in a society of dying people,” states Josh Kline’s press release for “Quality of Life,” a show about the youth industry. The show draws from a pool of artists in their late-20s, early-30s, a handful of whom are up-and-comers in both the fashion and New York art worlds. You want to be in their event pictures. Also, an enormous collaborator list gives us reason to expect a huge production; net artists like Patric DiCaprio, artist/247365 gallerist MacGregor Harp, die artist Shabd Simon- Alexander, and the emerging fashion designers Eckhaus Latta might give you an idea of the range.

Issue Project Room

Ten Years Alive on the Infinite Plan

If you could squeeze Mike Kelley into one sound, it might sound like intense, climactic piano works of artist-composer Charlemagne Palestine, who often performs with stuffed animals. He’ll be performing those with celebrated Jazz musician Joe McPhee and jazz poet Steve Dalachinsky. The performance is part of Issue Project Room’s 10 year anniversary festival, revisiting key projects in experimental sound.

Tickets are $25/$18 to members and students

Wed

Leslie Fritz

Talia Chetrit

Photographer Talia Chetrit has a knack for imagery which at first look fairly aimless, but turn out to be skillfully-manipulated surrealism. So this show of her amateur photography from the age of thirteen might, actually, be great.

Feature Inc

Richard Kern: Medicated, etc.

It’s easy to like pictures of hot girls smoking weed. Richard Kern makes them more in the spirit of curiosity than objectification, though, which makes them more fun to look at. The last time we saw those weed pictures, they were with B Wurtz yogurt lids at NADA, which was great. This time, they’ll be on view for his book launch.

Thu

Housing Works

Ben Davis: 9.5 Theses on Art and Class

Art critic Ben Davis recently published 9.5 Theses on Art and Class, his prescription for the art world’s political impotence. Our own Clara Olshansky wrote that it had issues, but overall, is a must-read. We can safely agree, based on Davis’ smart and critical engagement with the Occupy movement. He’ll be speaking about the book at Housing Works at 7 PM.

The Suzanne Geiss Company

Digital Expressionism

Three strong analogue painter-sculptors Ben Wolf Noam,Greg Parma Smith, and Korakrit Arunanondchai have gone through the Photoshop wash, and come out with psychadellic digital expression. Arunanondchai was a standout in this spring’s “Double Life” at the Sculpture Center, but they’re all well worth seeing.

Team Gallery

Parasitic Gaps

And after Suzanne Geiss, head around the corner to Team Gallery. The title “Parasitic Gaps” refers to the use of words to create gaps, or new meaning, in art. That could be a dull, concept-to-the-max kind of show. We think there should be more than enough playfulness between Matthew Higgs, Georgia Sagri, Margaret Lee, and James Hoff to keep it grounded. Curated by Miriam Katzeff.

P!

A Rough Guide to Hell

Hell is capitalism. The Paris-based co-op Société Réaliste will outline it through clips from the film version of Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead, architecture, and fonts. They’ll also be presenting a new, Satanic-looking typeface, which is available for free download during the show. (If it’s the one on the press release, it’s beautiful).

Fri

chashama studios

Power Suit Pop-up

Who does not want a PowerSuit? During Fashion Week, Flux Factory artist Aliya Bonar and Lindsey McCord will be making them custom, tailored to your life goals. See earlier iterations with PowerSuit camp. Thirty-minute consultations are free, PowerSuits run from $30-$200. That’s a pretty great deal.

Abrons Arts Center

Hymns For Mr. Suzuki

Is good art a product of artistic genius, or a conducive environment? The group show “Hymns For Mr. Suzuki” comes from the teachings of Japanese violinist Shin’ichi Suzuki, who believed that, with the right environment, all children can learn things well. As a case study, the show comprises prominent artists from a range of ages and nationalities: Kate Davis, Ann Hirsch, Servane Mary, Ken Okiishi, Leslie Thornton, and Hito Steyerl. Karen Archey curates.

Hauser & Wirth

Chelsea’s back to school, and that means solo shows of giants. Matthew Day Jackson’s show at the mausoleum Hauser & Wirth will be so enormous that the Wall Street Journal already has a fucking slideshow of the installation. The show has to do with death, frontiers, and the outer limits. What else…

Right down the road at 18th and 10th, Friedrich Petzel hosts another seasoned painter Charline von Heyl.

Invisible-Exports

Carey Liebowitcz (paintings and belt buckles)

If you saw the giant “I NEED TO START SEEKING A THERAPIST” sign at Frieze New York and thought that was up your alley, there’s a new solo show by the maker of that sign, Carey Liebowitcz, aka, Candyass. We’re doubly into this because it’s the grand re-opening of one of our favorite galleries, Invisible-Exports, in its new space at 89 Eldridge.

Sat

So What Space

Mutant Porcelain

The phenomenon of morphing porcelain seems to have taken the emerging art world by storm, and this group, curated by Zach Smith, will provide plenty of food for thought: see Rachel de Joode’s digital putty, Steffen Bunte’s new age, consumeristic formalism, and Joel Holmberg’s conceptual use of paint. And if that’s not enough incentive to get down to Sunset Park, the openings are always fun, and now sponsored by Brooklyn Brewery. Beer should be plentiful.

Transfer Gallery

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Transfer Gallery often allows artists to realize big IRL projects that wouldn’t otherwise be possible for net artists. We expect this to be the case with the collaboration between artist Carla Gannis and poet Justin Petropoulos, who are releasing an app, making a show, and publishing a volume of poems and drawings. The book is inspired by Edna Kenton’s The Book of Earths, a book of theories and folklore about the shape of the Earth.

Winkleman Gallery

spinach & banana

Bad painting fans might love the first New York exhibition of paintings by Estonian artist . Expect brushy rainbows and mushy, feathery pastels, which, from jpegs, look provocatively awful, in a good way.

Plus, all of the 27th street galleries will be re-opening on Saturday night, so there should be a good turn-out.

Sun

Allegra La Viola

Jeila Gueramian: LET'S GO FURTHER

We don’t know what to expect from this show, be we do know there will be a panda bear made of yarn, felt and LED lights with eyes made of stars and the words “Listen” written across its forehead. We will obey.